Specsavers Championship, Monday, June 19, 2017

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Why not - La Liga, Bundesliga, PL etc all run at the same time and broadcasters such as Sky cover them all? The vastly different time zones for cricketing countries would make it even easier to work than the football leagues mentioned too.

by dez dezzy6/19/2017 3:01:55 PM

dez dezzy - Problem with that is that the league won't want to all be held at the same time because they won't be able to sell their television rights internationally.

The ICC have been concerned about T20 leagues clashing with and taking precedence over international matches recently - if there was an annual space blocked out for them (would have to be beginning or end of the English season to ensure weather was ok in all continents) then players would only play for 1, maybe max 2 teams.

by dez dezzy6/19/2017 2:57:29 PM

ECB Reporters Network

Essex 160-3 v Warwickshire

Nick Browne showed enormous endurance and stamina in reaching his third fifty in Essex’s last three Specsavers County Championship games on a stifling-hot first day against bottom club Warwickshire at Chelmsford.

The left-handed opener reached tea 58 not out as the Division One leaders kept their heads while making it to the break on 160 for three.

It had taken Browne two sessions and xxxx balls. He lost Varun Chopra during the afternoon, but in Ravi Bopara found a more belligerent partner. The pair put an unbroken 64 for the fourth wicket, with Bopara on 35.

Jeetan Patel bowled unchanged for 11 overs either side of lunch, taking the wickets of Alastair Cook and Tom Westley at a personal cost of 28. He almost added Browne soon after the break, when the ball was dollied just out of Sam Hain’s reach at short leg.

Within three balls of Boyd Rankin replacing Patel at the Hayes Close End, Chopra inexplicably left alone a straight-ish delivery and was bowled.

Rankin’s spell lasted three overs, for five runs before Patel returned. He had kept a stranglehold on most of the Essex batsman, but Bopara took two steps down the wicket and lofted the ball over the bowler’s head for six. He then paddle-swept Patel for two before cover-driving a four.

Browne went to his fifty from 161 balls with a three carved through midwicket off Patel.

Glamorgan again lost only one wicket in the afternoon session against Durham, reaching 147 for two from 64 overs at tea with Nick Selman still there on 80.He lost Andrew Salter for 25, pushing forward and edging Chris Rushworth to wicketkeeper Stuart Poynter to end a stand of 66 in 34 overs.Colin Ingram also made a cautious start and had scored only four when he top-edged over Poynter in trying to hook academy boy Matty Potts.Although off-spinner Ryan Pringle conceded only 22 in his 13 overs, Ingram began to flourish when he drove him through the covers then cut him for another four. The Australian left-hander was on 27 at tea.

by David Hopps6/19/2017 2:52:45 PM

That doesn't excite me as by the 3rd week of the IPL I am bored but maybe the games would be more spaced out. The idea that basically the same overseas will play in every league does mean a real lack of variety, will be interesting if the comps start to compete with each other maybe some will start allowing more overseas

At the moment is isn't viable for a T20 side to buy a players 12 months rights, the BCCI don't allow players to make a living elsewhere but I think other boards would struggle with that. I suppose it may happen in the future if league become longer and longer so players have to chose on or the other

by nickcricket6/19/2017 2:49:05 PM

Live Update

David Hopps at Essex 160-3 v Warwickshire

I've been waiting for a replay of the Varun Chopra dismissal but it has yet to arrive. Perhaps it has become the subject of a D notice because my suspicion is that Chopra just raised arms and left a straight one. Could be wrong though. It might also have kept a little low.

This is a slow, dry pitch. It is turning but whether it will get slower and lower as the game wears on to negate that turn remains to be seen. Not quite the paradise for batsmen imagined at 11am though.

Nick Browne, though, is crabbing out with determination and usefulness: 58 in 63 overs of inconsistent timing.

I reckon we should start each match with a 6 hitting comp between Chris Gayle and KP. Then just pack up and go home. That way we avoid the boring "all" overs. Oh and we need to get the IPL kit designers in.

by Haystack_Jnr6/19/2017 2:42:48 PM

What would be better is if players were only contracted to 1 club, that way there would be no mercenaries and you could also have a relevant Champions League style comp between the best teams.

by dez dezzy6/19/2017 2:40:03 PM

What this country really needs is Finch bowling to Narine, 666646

by nickcricket6/19/2017 2:34:20 PM

There's not enough T20 cricket around at the moment. I want more Sunil Narine bowling to Aaron Finch in every single kit colour combination possible

Personally I can't wait to get rid of all the rubbish counties and get a T20 league like they going to have in South Africa, Straussy City Cricket doesn't go far enough. Nottingham Knight Riders anyone?

We have had two ball-changes here and Mark III is swinging around like billy-oh. The chief beneficiary of this has been Luke Procter, who has taken the two wickets since lunch and left Hampshire poorly placed on 125-5 at one stage. Vince was leg before to a swinging delivery and Ervine, more culpably, was caught behind when fencing. George Bailey is 58 not out and is playing a good hand; he has been joined by the very adhesive Lewis McManus but Kyle Jarvis and Ryan McLaren are also getting plenty of joy from these atmospherics and for all Bailey's crisp drives, batting is not straightforward.

It’s a big week for Paul Stirling. By the end of it, his country, Ireland, are likely to be a Test nation. If that is indeed the case, Stirling will need to be playing the regular County Championship cricket that his talent befits. He has never really managed it, thanks to a combination of Middlesex’s great batting strength, Ireland commitments disrupting his availability, and his own underwhelming Championship record - he only averages 27.77 in the format, against an average of 41.46 in one-day cricket. But he’s made useful contributions in his first two games of the season, scoring 52, 49 and 12 across three innings, and is looking fluent here, cutting Steve Patterson for a ferocious four to breach the ‘Yorkshire wall’. He’s on 29 and Sam Robson, batting with typically understated class, has 63.